Prof. Ronald Hilton

The World Association of International Studies was born of the vision of one man, Ronald Hilton of Stanford University and the Hoover Institution. Prof. Hilton founded our direct predecessor, the California Institute of International Studies, in 1965. Up to his death in February 2007 at the age of 95, Prof. Hilton tirelessly labored to build and nurture an international fellowship of scholars and experts in nearly every field. The daily WAIS on-line discussions you see on this website, covering a myriad of global topics, are a continuing homage to Prof. Hilton.

Prof. Hilton was not only a polyglot, a Renaissance man and a dynamic scholar; he was also an eyewitness to many of the great events of the 20th century. He personally interacted with world leaders of all ilks, from Alexander Kerensky to Herbert Hoover. He was present in Spain at the outbreak of the Civil War (1936). He attended the San Francisco meetings which established the United Nations after World War II. He was the first US scholar to become aware of the plans for the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961. These stories and more are told in Prof. Hilton's fascinating memoir, From Monarchy to Civil War, downloadable at the following link: